From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=DKIM_INVALID,DKIM_SIGNED, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,T_SCC_BODY_TEXT_LINE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 30804 invoked from network); 11 Sep 2022 13:31:38 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (50.116.15.146) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 11 Sep 2022 13:31:38 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C3662428F3; Sun, 11 Sep 2022 23:31:32 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mail-io1-f53.google.com (mail-io1-f53.google.com [209.85.166.53]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id B0B98428F0 for ; Sun, 11 Sep 2022 23:31:20 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mail-io1-f53.google.com with SMTP id d8so1984321iof.11 for ; Sun, 11 Sep 2022 06:31:20 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=dartmouth.edu; s=google1; h=to:subject:message-id:date:from:mime-version:from:to:cc:subject :date; bh=TuYJ5usTRfO/m45+FMrEjrznA4OwDWjxS+rtW80F20E=; b=FGQv6GEogw5fMz22iFAxHoD7PKzHQH6GV+PvL6SuAOOSD92F5Rs5/qJD8m//7TUWba IilbivVsTLumAzaXlV4O3rBt2y7P19dapAKF6Yz6WWSOEHG+akv2stBqOz86scAEt0CB 4hbi4M6J+hqO1BzepVQu9aPJNqSGc/6nq0UzqxKYGtU8YgFUA7yaisMESAVjYHuRTXdh glaK7WH0/5q5GtiMqUWMdXDBeaqqY76NpB/R59KhCrf1Yxe/vP31eE97yHOH5vXsjbBS rPPn603jfl0zpYbCNZDzXhWLO4eYhb7BGXIfBtDUi2eRW5LWw+i+DdJnkr0mHkEvH14k Azlw== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20210112; h=to:subject:message-id:date:from:mime-version:x-gm-message-state :from:to:cc:subject:date; bh=TuYJ5usTRfO/m45+FMrEjrznA4OwDWjxS+rtW80F20E=; b=IWKj30sfNZ1+p3QyrFaia7XeNxa+cPpOEnY1hGJiouriAun6hrd7Bti0fMHICwVmfK CodkD+ZjmWGu+RbVEFD/PlYWap9C0MM+FmRcOmUtFA1TyzpMhMu7zxVN/iHmq15drNOv 1RdmS1O5rBZuZauYIHvP3JgsGvBI/cWNMb0F8VG9QtUAVyTKYdICihCHgFha+o2ArHax 5pDZL8h3CXUMd5tFUkurm6+xvXqmnQd7SU9bsT6xfPCQiVfvDozIH9zJeAQV3A+5AKIA UPJbM3fJ/XrGCjTVq2rqu3jZv1IvhEA6yl0KmaS3WLovSKtcv0SZHiA51wkiUlU7fgce HQWw== X-Gm-Message-State: ACgBeo38NdXAUgUsx+rGY44LE9sFIbs6t+iuGZwLrWhCaACKA2AnCkHR NRY0ViGn/7dLJyL0nzlez7i7WDKaDza6WVotzPHv/kXk/w8TWg== X-Google-Smtp-Source: AA6agR4b7S/6PX/IQH3WTbrSgZ2aKdlIkCvkRztGFm79IKCAR142aha9M7u64CODZ75yeff2KumYVIYiZSDrSHMH9uw= X-Received: by 2002:a02:8549:0:b0:351:e043:b46e with SMTP id g67-20020a028549000000b00351e043b46emr10719977jai.222.1662903019728; Sun, 11 Sep 2022 06:30:19 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 From: Douglas McIlroy Date: Sun, 11 Sep 2022 09:30:03 -0400 Message-ID: To: TUHS main list Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Message-ID-Hash: FD3AHK4FHHOJNFWKK4ZQYZWKYCZF62BQ X-Message-ID-Hash: FD3AHK4FHHOJNFWKK4ZQYZWKYCZF62BQ X-MailFrom: douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; header-match-tuhs.tuhs.org-0; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [TUHS] Re: Does anybody know the etymology of the term "word" as in collection of bits? List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: Anecdote prompted by the advent of Burroughs in this thread: At the 1968 NATO conference on Software Engineering, the discussion turned to language design strategies. I noted that the design of Algol 68, for example, presupposed a word-based machine, whereupon Burroughs architect Bob Barton brought the house down with the remark, "In the beginning was the Word, all right--but it was not a fixed number of bits!" [Algol 68's presupposition is visible in declarations like "long long long ... int". An implementation need support only a limited number of "longs", but each supported variety must have a definite maximum value, which is returned by an "environment enquiry" function. For amusement, consider the natural idea of implementing the longest variety with bignums.] Doug